Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi believes 15 wins can deliver his side the A-league title

BRISBANE coach John Aloisi refuses to set a points target for his team, but concedes if the Roar is to win the A-League title they must reach a “magic number” of wins.

Magic number that can deliver Roar the title

BRISBANE coach John Aloisi refuses to set a points target for his team, but says 15 is the magic number for the Roar to have a genuine shot at winning the A-League premiership.

“You know to win the title you need to win at least 15 games,” Aloisi said as he dared to look ahead at what might eventuate after Brisbane’s great start to the season.

And he’s right. On the five previous occasions the regular A-League season has been contested over 27 rounds, 15 victories — plus draws — has three times been enough for a team to finish in top spot.

The Roar won 16 games on their way to the Premier’s Plate in the 2013-14 season, while Western Sydney Wanderers won 18 matches the season before to top the league.

It is the Wanderers and Brisbane who are setting the pace this season. Western Sydney have eight wins, two draws and two losses in 12 matches to be sitting in first place two points ahead of the Roar, who have won seven matches, drawn three and lost two.

Only once have the Roar had a better record after 12 rounds since the start of the A-League in 2005.

Most Brisbane fans would have only dreamt that heading into 2016 their team would be in second place and on 24 points after a tumultuous off-season that included attempts to shut down the club due to well-documented financial strife.

But not Aloisi and his team, who are aiming for a fourth successive win when they host Perth Glory at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

John Aloisi is chasing 15 regular season wins.

“I knew that I was taking over a side that had a lot of winners,” said Aloisi, who replaced Dutchman Frans Thijssen soon after Brisbane’s ordinary 2014-15 campaign, in which they won just 10 of 27 regular season matches and only played finals football after Perth Glory were excluded from the top-six series for breaching the salary cap.

“I said to the players that they didn’t want a repeat of the season that had just gone.

“I didn’t say we wanted to be in a certain position by Christmas time or needed to be where we are now, but I knew I had players who could win things.”

They included the likes of multiple championship winners Thomas Broich, Matt McKay, Henrique, Shane Stefanutto, Jade North and Michael Theo.

“They’ve won titles in the past, so there’s no reason why they can’t titles win again,” Aloisi said.

“I haven’t said to the players we have to get this many points or we have to win this many games because that takes the focus away from week to week matters.

“All I’ve ever said to them is to improve in each game, improve in what we’re trying to do and improve our structures and within that, we know we’ll win football games.”

Originally published as Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi believes 15 wins can deliver his side the A-league title